Crackling Brat

I've always loved books and reading. I know, kind of nerdy. But like music and art, books encourage you to use your imagination. Mine has always been pretty vivid. It's really all my daddy's fault. He used to spend hours reading to me, sometimes the same book over and over just because I loved the accents he used for the characters.

Anyway, I'm on vacation at the beach and it's been raining for 2 days. I've been going stir crazy so today I went to the local bookstore and found a copy of one of my favorite children's books "Crackling Brat". It's a story of a little boy who sets off to find his father who was kidnapped by time. Along the way he encounters the icy snow tiger, the dark night bear, and the hunger wolf. He manages to defeat them all, find and free his father before time turns him to dust. My favorite part of the story is when they describe his breakfast of "clouds and thunder, lightning and rain, hail and gale and blizzard'.

The inside cover says that in the tradition of most ancient folktales, "Crackling Brat" shows youth triumphing over experience, good over evil, and freedom over oppression. I never cared. I loved the story because the little boy could shoot lightning bolts from his fingertips, and turn water to ice, and use a tiger's claw to cut ropes to free his father. And my daddy could read it with the best accents ever.

Story of my life.